here's yesterday's post:

September 30

It's been a few days now since my last blog, and while I'm now repeating the same itinerary this week, as I will again next week, I feel it's time to give an update on my perspective on things.

First of all let me cover a few more things about the places we've visited. I posted my last blog from Newport, which was relatively boring and so I will skip over that for now and maybe write more about it when we visit it again next week. 

On Sunday, after much anticipation, I finally got to check out New York City. As you can imagine, it is an incredibly overwhelming city to try and make sense of in a few short hours, and it feels premature to really say anything about it having spent so little time there, but I'll at least give my initial impressions.

The Showband drummer, Jay, showed me around the city, for which I was extremely grateful, having been intimidated by the prospect of trying to navigate the city myself. We walked from the cruise ship terminal (12th avenue and 48th street, I believe, on the west side of Manhattan), and walked to and through Central Park, Time Square, Carnegie Hall, as well as several other landmarks. It's difficult to do justice to everything I saw by writing about it, being as there was such a huge amount to take in. It might be helpful to check out my photos on facebook , the album titled "Norwegian Dawn 2".

New York is a great city to walk through. It is very straight forward to navigate through since it's on a strict grid system, with avenues going north-south and streets going east-west, all numbered. The best best word to describe the architecture as a whole would be overbearing. It's not just the presence of a lot of really tall buildings, but more so the distinct lack of any buildings that are NOT tall. There is a relative uniformity to the buildings, although there were quite a few distinctive older buildings mixed in as well. Having just come from Boston two days before however, I didn't think it had quite as much character as Boston's architecture and general city layout. Remember that these are very superficial first impressions, which I'm sure will be amended as I get to experience more.

New Yorkers have the same affinity with Fitness as Vancouverites, and the marathon that was being run at the edge of Central Park felt quite like the Vancouver Sun Run. The people are generally quite good looking and very diverse culturally, and for the most part quite friendly.

I was shocked and pleased by the prices of things in New York. I bought a hat in Time Square for a couple of the shows we're playing. It cost 10$, and am quite sure that the same hat would have cost $40 in Vancouver. They were selling "I Love NY" t-shirts for  2$ each, and Jay informed me you could find them even cheaper than that. No wonder everyone in the world seems to have one. For myself I decided that I needed to actually see enough NY to decide whether or not I loved it before buying one, and even then it will probably be somewhat reluctantly.

I've gone on enough about NYC for now and will talk about it more after my next visit. I plan bike around it next time now that I understand the layout. I should probably try to make a list of things to see before I get there next so as to better organize my time, but I quite doubt I will be that organized.

Monday was another at-sea day, as well as my birthday away from home. It was a very busy day of playing, as mondays always are, but I still enjoy all of the music we are playing so it was a good way to spend a birthday, and it was nice to end it at the casino where we get free drinks. Tuesday in Halifax I got to go on to facebook and email and read numerous birthday greetings from home which was very nice. I didn't spend much more time there other than to check out a notable tugboat in the harbour ("Theodore Too"), and to check out a few other landmarks.

Yesterday  (wednesday) we were back in Saint John. Last week I was not especially impressed with the city, probably due to having been pressed for time while there. This week, I had a lot of time to walk around, and I was very impressed with the amazing old buildings and atmosphere. It was an extremely foggy day, and that combined with the relatively deserted streets and old architecture made it feel like a ghost town, which I thought was great. Most of the buildings there are red brick, but there are a few much older looking ones, in particular churches, with a gothic castle look to them. 

That night, we played the South Beach Rave production show again, which was a lot of fun. Since I have memorized most of the show, I was made to walk around the stage a bit while playing, choreographed and timed with the dancers and other musicians so as not to run into them. It was very rock and roll. As a bass player this kind of thing is extremely rare and unfamiliar (at least for me),as I usually never stray far from my post next to the drums and keyboard towards the back of the stage. I enjoyed my brief moments of stardom. After the Rave show we played our Tina Turner tribute show, which was a blast and I enjoyed it more this week now that I know my parts better. The singer from the duo that we support for the tribute is extremely charismatic and energetic, and it's really fun to be a part of the show.

Today we were in Bar Harbo(u)r again. In town I had a sample of some beers from the local brewery, including a blueberry fruit beer, which was surprisingly good. Unlike some other fruit beers, it was not overpoweringly sweet or syrupy, and the blueberry flavour was subtle but significant. Afterwards I went for a walk along a coastal path which kept our cruise ship in view for the entirety, and showcased some pretty amazing looking mansions. I'm afraid I went a bit overboard with pictures on that walk, but it was just one of those places. Bar Harbour has to be one of the most enchantingly idyllic places that I have yet visited, and I've seen my fair share of friendly coastal towns. Even the prevalence of noisy tourists does nothing to destroy the serenity that pervades. It put me in an extremely good and reflective mood. I still can't believe that I get paid to go visit such amazing places. Someone told me that as a crew member, if I go to the shore excursions desk on the ship at the last minute I might be able to get a free spot in one of the numerous excursions for free, which would be pretty cool. A bunch of people went on a river rafting expedition yesterday in Saint John which I unfortunately missed out on due to a rehearsal, but I might see if I can swing it next week.

Onward to some general thoughts about life on the ship. I feel like I have now settled into the routine here, having been to every port on this part of our itinerary at least once. A big thing to think about as a musician on these boats is what to do with all of your free time when onboard. I have been taking every opportunity I have to sit in with other musicians who have solo lounge sets, although that is not until later in the evening. There are video games, gyms, books, dvd movies and tv shows, endless food places, napping time, an art gallery, and of course a few thousand people to talk with. I've started to take a lot of pleasure in talking to passengers. They are all very excited to hear about what it is I do and where I'm from. I've getting accustomed to being watched by smiling, knowing grandmotherly faces, elderly passengers to whom I probably bring to mind their own children or grandchildren. I've even had a couple passengers want to take pictures of me. I find the tiny amount of celebrity that I acquire when people find out that I'm the bass player for the showband quite amusing, since in any other context the bass player is entirely overlooked.

The only other subgroup that has the same kind of empty schedule as the musicians is the singers and dancers, who are together part of the Jean Anne Ryan Company. because of our matching schedules I've gotten to meet a number of them who,  and they are all very cool and talented people, mostly from the US and other commonwealth countries. 

A few other miscellaneous thoughts:

- I've started to notice that every single hallway in this ship seems to have it's own private little music station of various different styles, and so far I haven't run into any bad music, which is refreshing. 

-It is very peculiar with this run that we change our clocks twice a week to accommodate the time change from New York to Halifax. After it happened the first time I've become used to it, but it does add an extra random factor to the week.

-Today was my first pay-day, and it felt so good. I like being paid in cash, though it requires more effort to save. And yes, even though they don't deduct any money for tax, it is still unfortunately my responsibility as a Canadian citizen to declare it on my tax return. Oh well.

-Tonight we are going to play two Neil Diamond Tribute shows. Last week we did only one and had a number of people complain that they couldn't get into the room due to its popularity. Tomorrow will be a day in Boston again which will be great - I plan to try and bike through it this time round, weather permitting.

-I also just realized that tomorrow is two weeks from my first day here. The first week felt long but the second one has gone by extremely fast, which I guess must mean that I'm enjoying myself.

I was going to start trying to write this blog a little less often now that my initial rush of familiarization has mostly passed, but  as I write this I am finding that if I leave it too long I amass to many thoughts that I want to write down and then it takes me twice as long just to remember and organize them, so I might try and keep it up a little more often. I am really enjoying having this outlet, and having people who actually seem interested on the other end of this is encouraging.